Attorney General Pam Bondi said this week that her Department of Justice (DOJ) is on "high alert" on the heels of American airstrikes this weekend targeting Iranian nuclear development sites.
The comment came during a House Appropriations Committee session in Washington on Monday.
As reported by the website ZeroHedge, Rep. Tony Gonzales, R-Texas, asked Bondi about the number of Iranian nationals who may have entered the United States illegally. The issue is of great concern, with hostilities flaring in recent days between Israel and Iran. The two nations have traded attacks, with Israel intent on decapitating Iran's development of materials used in nuclear weapons, though a ceasefire is, for the moment, in place.
"Over 1,000 have entered our country, and I can tell you we are on high alert, and everyone is looking at that very closely," Bondi said.
As reported, she went on to suggest that the FBI is on guard against possible Iranian sleeper cells within the U.S. She drew a line between those cells and Iranian nationals who entered the United States across the southern border under the Biden administration.
The New York Post, citing reporting from Fox News, said that under President Joe Biden, over 1,500 Iranian migrants were caught crossing the border illegally, with close to half released into the U.S.
Gonzales told Bondi "I want to, as much as we can, get ahead of it to give you the resources, the instruments that you need to go out and make sure that we're preventing things from happening, not waiting until after the fact."
He said proposals to cut funding for the DOJ and its subsidiary agency, the FBI, could hurt national security.
ZeroHedge quoted Bondi as saying the DOJ is committed to "doing more with less" amid budget cuts across the DOJ and the federal government, before saying Congress can help by passing the Trump administration's One Big Beautiful Bill Act. Passed by the House, it is now before the Senate.
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